Boulder County's 2014 budget to include at least $36.5 million in flood-related spending

By John FryarLongmont Times-Call

Posted:
11/07/2013 06:51:56 PM MST

2014 Boulder County budget

Among the requests -- some flood-related and some not -- that Boulder County commissioners tentatively approved:

$500,000 for a consulting firm to help the county get federal and state funding reimbursements for parts of the county's flood-recovery expenses

$101,746 for a video system to provide security and allow the remote viewing of autopsies at the Boulder County Coroner's Office

$350,000 for repairs of flood damages at the county facilities on the 1200 block of Alaska Avenue in Longmont

$100,000 for ditch improvements and installation of a new 12-inch drain line along the west side of the garden outside the Boulder County Fairgrounds' Natural Resources Building

$105,000 to lease office for Administrative Services Department staff

$165,555 for additional Boulder County Public Health water quality, wastewater and air quality specialists

$72,160 for a Boulder County Public Health environmental health specialist and $85,848 for a position on the county commissioners' staff to serve as a liaison between Boulder County and the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission

$25,000 for the County Coroner's autopsy-related expenses

$81,743 to offset federal funding cutbacks the county's Community Services Department expects in its Head Start and Community Action programs

$12,000 for the County Surveyor's Office to replace flood-destroyed or flood-shifted survey benchmarks

$350,000 for equipment the Transportation Department sought for its flood-repair work

$121,020 for a flood recovery manager and $76,692 for a public information officer to assist the recovery manager

$209,060 for several positions in the Land Use Department for positions to help process Boulder County residents' and property owners' applications for replacing or making major repairs to their flood-damaged structures

BOULDER -- Boulder County commissioners have tentatively approved including at least $36.5 million in flood-related spending in county government's 2014 budget.

Commissioners Cindy Domenico, Elise Jones, and Deb Gardner also predicted during a Thursday afternoon work session that the county's actual spending on repairing September's flood damages to county roads and properties -- and helping Boulder County residents, businesses and property owners recover from the floods -- is likely to grow once the 2014 budget year begins in January.

But under the commissioners' initial budget decisions, next year's $300 million-plus budget package, which the commissioners are expected to formally adopt in mid-December, is expected to include such items as:

$8.4 million to continue removing flood debris from streams, roadsides and other areas, work that's already begun under a $12 million multiple-year contract the commissioners approved this week.

$15 million -- an amount expected to increase during the year -- toward the projected $100 million cost of continuing to repair and replace flood-damaged roads, bridges, shoulders, culverts, ditches and other structures in the county roads network.

$8 million toward the currently estimated $50 million eventual cost of repairing the agricultural irrigation infrastructure, reservoirs, streams, ponds, trails, parking lots, kiosks, restrooms and other facilities on county parks and open space properties. That figure also is likely to increase, commissioners said.

$563,104 to replace all the roofing on the west side of the Justice Center at 1777 Sixth St. in Boulder, a project that once had been scheduled for sometime in the next two to three years but that has been moved up because of the many leaks officials said occurred during September's torrential rains.

$387,000 to flood-proof and flood-mitigate the new $3.9 million headquarters for the Boulder County Coroner's Office that's to be built next year on 5600 Flatiron Parkway, Boulder.

The commissioners Thursday announced they've decided to postpone at least one major project. Boulder County District Attorney Stan Garnett had sought $752,081 for the next phase of remodeling the DA's offices inside the Justice Center, but that'll now have to await funding.

Jones said it wouldn't make much sense to proceed with reconstructing and furnishing the space inside that building before fixing its leaky roof.

The commissioners also gave informal approvals to about $6.9 million in nonflood-related 2014 budget requests during Thursday's work session, including one that would earmark $955,159 to cover the county's 20 percent share of the projected first-year costs of a 15-year program to rehabilitate deteriorating paved roads in rural residential subdivisions. Subdivision property owners would be billed the remaining 80 percent, under a Local Improvement District the commissioners are in the process of creating.

The commissioners' budget staff is to incorporate Thursday's decisions into an overall proposed 2014 county budget that'll be the subject of a public hearing set for 5:30 p.m. next Thursday, Nov. 14.

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